Essays in Law and Economics
Pyle, Benjamin
2023
Abstract
Chapter 1: This chapter uses theoretical and empirical methods to understand the most common reason employers report reluctance to hire workers with a criminal record: legal liability generated by the tort of negligent hiring. While the purpose of the tort is ostensibly to protect and make whole those harmed when an employee misbehaves in a foreseeable manner, I find that, in practice, the tort generates additional criminal behavior and worsens employment outcomes. I first provide a survey of the current doctrine across the states and trace the origins of the tort through the common law. Next, I examine state legislation clarifying the negligent hiring standard and reducing the likelihood that an employer will be found liable. I use survey and administrative data from over a dozen states to document that the states that reformed their negligent hiring law increased employment for people with criminal records by 2-5 p.p. (5-9%) and lowered reincarceration for a new criminal offense by 2 p.p. (10%) relative to people in non-reforming states. The Census Bureau's Disclosure Review Board and Disclosure Avoidance Officers have reviewed this information product for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and have approved the disclosure avoidance practices applied to this release. This research was performed at a Federal Statistical Research Data Center under FSRDC Project Number 2295. (CBDRB-FY22-P2295-R9926 and CBDRB-FY23-P2295-R10669.) Chapter 2: This chapter (with Michael Mueller-Smith and Caroline Walker) studies the impact of adult prosecution on recidivism and employment for adolescent, first-time felony defendants. Regression discontinuity evidence shows that, relative to juvenile prosecution, adult prosecution reduces criminal charges over 5 years by 0.48 felony cases (-20%) while worsening labor market outcomes: $674 fewer earnings (-21%) per year. We develop an econometric framework that incorporates predictive machine learning models to identify mechanism-specific treatment effects, which we use to evaluate four policy counterfactuals: (1) raising the age of majority, (2) increasing adult dismissals rates, (3) eliminating adult incarceration, and (4) expanding juvenile record sealing opportunities to teenage adults. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. Census Bureau reviewed this data product for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and approved the disclosure avoidance practices applied to this release (DMS number: 7512453, DRB approval numbers: #CBDRB-FY22-291,CBDRB-FY23-088,CBDRB-FY23-0392,CBDRB-FY23-0414). Chapter 3: This chapter (written with Edward Fox) studies the impact of corporate tax cuts on taxed and non-taxed entities competing in the same industry. The TCJA of 2017 made large changes to the taxation of corporate and pass-through businesses in the U.S. Understanding the effects of these changes is complicated by the difficulty of finding control firms whose taxation was not altered by the Act. We study the effect of the TCJA on small and medium size banks using credit unions---which compete with these banks for deposits and in making loans---as a novel control group. Credit unions were not taxed both before and after the Act. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that an important fraction of the incidence of the tax cut goes to depositors. We find little evidence that employees or borrowers from banks receive a share of the tax cut in the form of higher wages or lower interest rates on loans or that banks increase their investment in fixed assets as a result of the Act.Deep Blue DOI
Subjects
Empirical legal studies, law and economics Negligent hiring Age of criminal majority Corporate tax incidence Difference-in-differences Regression discontinuity
Types
Thesis
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Remediation of Harmful Language
The University of Michigan Library aims to describe library materials in a way that respects the people and communities who create, use, and are represented in our collections. Report harmful or offensive language in catalog records, finding aids, or elsewhere in our collections anonymously through our metadata feedback form. More information at Remediation of Harmful Language.
Accessibility
If you are unable to use this file in its current format, please select the Contact Us link and we can modify it to make it more accessible to you.